How to Tell if Your Horse's Legs Are Hurt

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If your horse is hurt, you need to work out quickly what the problems might be. If you ride an injured horse you can seriously worsen the problem. Learn how to recognize signs of pain and address them accordingly.

Check the horse. Is it bearing weight evenly on all four limbs? Painful limbs will commonly be held off the ground (non-weight bearing) or be held slightly in front of the opposite limb (pointing).[citation needed]

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Hand walk the horse and observe how it moves. If it is clearly lame, call your veterinarian. If the horse looks sound, trot the horse in hand and observe. Lameness is not evident at the walk, but you will notice them at the trot. Horses are good at hiding their injuries and lameness may be subtle, so observe the horse moving from several different angles. Get someone else to trot the horse for you if necessary. Again, if the horse appears lame, call your veterinarian.

You are mainly trying to see if the horse is moving one or more of its legs differently than the others. When the horse trots, there should be a rhythm to it, and the front and back legs should be in line with each other. Although horses can have strange gaits that are perfectly normal, the best thing to do is to get a experienced professional to help you examine the horse further.

My horse is 18 years old, and my sister noticed he is behaving weird. She thinks his hoof hurts, because it's wider and he was in mud for a while. How can I determine what is wrong?

Community Answer

Call your farrier. Always call when there are hoof issues. She is slightly older, if her footing wasn't good, it may be cussings, which is serious. Have you been riding her? Is she lame? Bottom line, call the farrier. If he can't come out, call the vet.

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wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 18 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has also been viewed 13,804 times.